Jewellers slept soundly while children in Gaza were bombed by Israel

As you know all too well, the trade in Israeli diamonds is a major source of funding for the Israeli military regime, providing over $1 billion per year in funding for the Israeli military which stands accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the UN Human Rights Council. Furthermore, you must also be aware that the Kimberley Process does not guarantee that a diamond is conflict-free and claims by the jewellers that diamonds are conflict-free are completely false and grossly misleading.

As you slept is comfort and safety last night, the diamond-funded Israeli military once again wrought havoc in Gaza, bombing it by land, sea and air, - murdering, maiming and terrorizing the besieged, defenceless people of Gaza where 20% of the population of 1.6 million people are children under the age of five. I’m listening live at 2:34 am to a Harry Fear, an English reporter in Gaza who is giving us a minute by minute account of the bombs raining down in Gaza. The building beside the one he is reporting from in Gaza has just been struck by a missile. The sound of the impact was quite audible as he broadcast. I can hear the ambulance sirens approaching. The sheer terror this Israeli action inflicts on the entire population of Gaza is difficult, if not impossible, for any of us here, so remote from the danger, to imagine.

When you sell diamonds crafted in Israeli you are selling blood diamonds that fund this state terrorism.

You may profit in the short term, but rest assure, the cost in the long term, if not the medium term, will far outweigh any short term gains.

The silence of the jewellers in Ireland in relation to the trade in Israeli blood diamonds is shameful to say the least.

As you are aware, the Kimberley Process meets in less than two weeks to review the definition of a “conflict diamond”. You still have a little time to take a moral stand and call for an end to the trade in cut and polished diamonds from Israel that fund gross human rights violations. I hope you avail of the opportunity.

Further information about the trade in Israeli diamonds that fund war crimes available here - http://www.ipsc.ie/

"[Deportation at the airport] We saw the injured [Turkish] men going through.. a lot had a leg cut out of their trousers or an arm cut out of their top. It had been cut out to treat their wounds.. they were covered in blood, blood that had been there for three days, and some of them had wounds that were still bleeding.. What upset me most was seeing the dozen men, one after another, hobbling across the terminal, with a bandaged foot. I couldn't ask them why so many of them had a bandaged foot, I couldn't ask them what had happened, because if they spoke or if any of us spoke to them the Israelis beat the injured person.. We later found out that they had these injuries on the tops of their feet from when the troops came down from the helicopter on the Mavi Marmara, and they came down firing - they had been shot from above. Some of the men that were killed were shot at close range - head and chest, but a dozen of the men who were shot, among 59 people who were shot, they were shot at the tops of their feet - the bullets were coming down.. They weren't given a wheelchair or a pair of crutches, and if any of the other passengers stood up and tried to offer [help].. that person was dragged away and smacked by these Israelis. The Israeli soldiers sat on the floor, laughed and sniggered and made every one of these Turkish men hobble and hop all the way across, some 200 metres, everyone of them, one by one, made to do that purely for the sick amusement of the Israeli soldiers."